Great progress has been made in the reduction of smoking prevalence in this country. Only 26% of adults now smoke in England compared with 53% in 1948.

The reasons for this rise are complex and are not solely explained by the influence of media and advertising, but studies have shown that smoking imagery (ranging from fashion shoots showing supermodels smoking to real life photos of stars having a cigarette "after work") in magazines may play a role in influencing young people’s attitudes and behaviour on the issue. Magazines play a key role in influencing young people’s attitudes and behaviour on a range of areas including music, careers, fashion and sex. They provide an emotional and social sounding board and are increasingly used by many young people as a "guidebook" to help them through adolescence.

The main aims of this report are to explore which magazines carry smoking images and to analyse how young people are being influenced by this imagery. It also considers how smoking imagery and editorial on smoking interact.

The report is a revision of two pieces of research produced by the Health Education Authority (HEA) between 1995 and 1996 to examine the relationship between images of, and editorial on smoking in magazines and young people’s attitudes and beliefs on the issue (The Role of magazines in promoting good health, HEA 1996, Smoking and fashion a fatal combination, HEA, 1995). It has been updated in the light of new data on the prevalence of smoking in young people and now includes a pilot audit exploring the magazines who use smoking images most (and least) often.

We hope that magazine editors will take note of the findings and look seriously at their own editorial policy on smoking and examine the responsibility they have towards their readership on this issue.

1HEA Adult Tracking Survey 1996 (unpublished)

2Wald N. UK Smoking Statistics 1991

This section summarises the key findings of the three studies which make up this report.

Men’s and style magazines use far more smoking imagery than other magazines read by young people:

• Images with cigarettes are regularly featured in Loaded and The Face.
• Between them these magazines carried 43 images of smoking in just 3 months.
• The Sunday Times and the Independent on Sunday use more smoking imagery than the News of the World

Images of models smoking in fashion magazines are linked with very positive characteristics such as individuality and power:

• Magazines read by young people are inadvertently giving out mixed messages on smoking e.g. articles with anti-smoking messages are illustrated with images of people smoking
• Young people feel "let down" by those magazines which give out "mixed messages" and feel that they are "hypocritical"
• Young people expect consistency on smoking i.e. if magazines have anti-smoking messages in editorial they should not use smoking models within the same issue
• Young women acknowledge that they are influenced by glossy fashion photography featuring cigarettes. Images have a greater impact on the reader than text

Different types of smoking images in magazines are being interpreted in different ways by young people:

• Real life images of smoking i.e. shots of models smoking at parties (living their own lives outside of work) are very influential for young people
• Images of male models smoking are seen as realistic - i.e. they are more like ordinary people doing ordinary things like smoking - and are thus influential
• Images of smoking in fashion spreads are seen to accentuate an image i.e. to make it even more glamorous or as a way of injecting real life to an unreal situation

To quantify the prevalence of smoking imagery and tobacco advertising in magazines read by young people

3-4 titles were selected from different categories of magazines that at least 25% of young people read. They were selected at random from the top 20 publications in that category.

The categories were decided upon as part of the audit process and were: style, women’s "glossy ", men’s and Sunday newspapers.

Certain magazines are restricted by a voluntary agreement on tobacco advertising. This stipulates that if 25% of readers are young women aged 15-24 than no "advertising of cigarette/hand rolling tobacco brands will be placed in (these) magazines."

The magazines studied were

GQ, Loaded, FHM, and Attitude

Style:

The Face, I-D, Dazed and Confused, Time Out

Elle, Vogue, the Clothes Show Magazine

Sunday Newspapers:

Sunday Times, Independent on Sunday, News of the World

A total of 14 publications were studied over a 3 month period between November 1996 and January 1997. All were scanned for the numbers of smoking images used to support editorial. The number of tobacco advertisements were also logged.

Two people audited the images - an "auditor" and a control.

A smoking image was defined as the presence of a cigarette in an image. The smoking material (either cigarettes, roll-ups or cigars) could be lit or unlit, being held or not, being smoked or not. Images associated with smoking ie cigarette packs, (with no cigarettes showing) lighters, brand names, ash-trays with no cigarettes in them etc were not logged as images.

If two different people were smoking on the same image, two images were counted.

In fashion spreads depicting many different poses/photos of the same individual - each shot of that individual with a cigarette was counted.

Of the magazines audited, men’s and style magazines used more smoking than other publications. Loaded carried 21 and The Face 22 images of smoking over a 3 month period.

All Sunday newspapers studied used smoking images. The Independent on Sunday (17 images over three months) and The Sunday Times (13 images) used a significantly higher number of smoking images than the News of the World (1 image)

Of all the magazines studied, the Clothes Show magazine was the only magazine not to use smoking at any time in editorial or advertising during this period. Vogue came a close second with only 2 images.

Magazines were generally consistent in either showing many or few (or no) images of smoking.

Aim

To evaluate magazine buyers’ interpretations of smoking information contained within magazine editorial, i.e. Health and Beauty pages, features, etc.

• To assess and compare the impact of smoking and non-smoking images within the same context.
• To establish the buyers’ perception of their magazine’s rule on smoking.
• To explore whether buyers perceive their magazine’s editorial and visual stance on smoking to be in harmony.

The views of 16-20 year olds were obtained through 12 extended group discussions of 5-6 people. Eight groups were made up of smokers and recent ex-smokers, 4 of which were male and 4 female. The remaining 4 groups were made up of non-smokers, 2 of which were male and 2 female. All were regular buyers of at least one of a range of titles, including I.D., The Face, Vox, Sky, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Vogue, Esquire, GQ, FHM and Maxim.

Key areas addressed during the 2-hour discussion groups were as follows:

• The Role of the Magazine in Influencing Smoking
• Visual vs Text-Editorial
• Feature vs Image
• Contrasting a visual that features smoking with a non-smoking image
• Perceptions of smoking/non-smoking magazines

• The main finding from this research was that magazines, are without knowing it, promoting a glamorous image of smoking. Although editors quite rightly stress that they carry editorials or news-pieces stressing the dangers of smoking this is countered by the article being illustrated with often seductive pictures of models with cigarettes. Pictures create an instantaneous reaction, and this is "read" by readers as promoting a positive image of cigarettes. Thus the editors’ good intentions are lost.
• Pieces where cigarettes are used as a pure fashion accessory to promote mood and style are very influential. The research points to magazine readership being driven primarily by the emotions - pictures are understood and "read" by the emotional side of us which is why the power of a strong image overrides the power of a text warning on the dangers of smoking.
• Verbal and image-based messages appear to be processed by different aspects of the reader’s consciousness. A verbal treatment of the smoking issue was generally absorbed by the intellectual, rational part of the psyche.
• Readers expect consistency. If a magazine is perceived to take a responsible view on health issues such as smoking, then this has to be maintained throughout the magazine. If an anti-smoking stance is adopted within the text, then this must be supported by omitting cigarettes from the visuals.
• Communicating mixed messages on an issue like smoking is perceived to be extremely hypocritical and most readers feel "let down" by magazines which are prepared to do this when they are being asked to consider the issue in a rational way.
• There is general acknowledgement amongst young women that they are influenced by glossy, fashionable photographs featuring cigarettes as a fashion accessory.
• Models are perceived to enhance the glamorous image that smoking once had, undermining the effect of years of health warnings and negative messages in text. Images in fashion magazines were found to link smoking with very positive qualities such as individuality, self-assertiveness and power.
• The difference in response to verbal and visual messages may further explain the often contradictory impulses expressed by most respondents (including the majority of non-smokers), who would initially condemn smoking for various reasons, but later (often unintentionally) reveal a deep-seated acceptance of the habit.

To analyse how images of smoking used in fashion editorial and fashion advertisements are understood and read;

• Consider attitudes towards fashion within the study group, and see how these might inform the understanding of smoking when used in fashion pictures;
• Consider attitudes towards smoking and see how these might affect how people read images of smoking in fashion pictures.

Ten focus groups were conducted in London and around the country during December 1994. Each group consisted of between four and ten members, and had a duration of up to two hours. The groups were split into two age ranges: 13-15 year olds and 16-18 year olds. Some groups were mixed gender, some all male and some all female. Half of the group members were smokers and the other half non-smokers.

During the course of the group discussion fashion images from editorial features and advertisements in youth, men’s and style magazines were shown, and members were asked to comment.

The presence of tobacco products in fashion images is not as important as the way in which the complete image is presented. For example images of cigarettes portrayed in glamorous, soft-focus catwalk settings give out different messages about smoking to a more real-life environment.

Where cigarettes are shown in images that are perceived as "realistic", smoking is validated as a normal part of everyday life. The reader recognises the life shown, the clothes worn and cigarette smoked as "real life" and, thus, is given "permission" to see smoking as acceptable, even aspirational.

Images of male models are seen as being especially "realistic" - they are more like ordinary people, doing ordinary things, including smoking.

Images of smoking in fashion spreads which are perceived as "fantastic" (such as staged shots of models smoking on the catwalk) are seen to either bolster an image, to make it even more glamorous, or, as a way of injecting normality into an otherwise unreal situation.

There is a strong indication that the use of tobacco products in fashion imagery may be particularly influential on young people’s smoking behaviour in three distinct media forms:

One consistent theme throughout the report is that smoking imagery in magazines may be playing a role in influencing young people’s attitudes and behaviour towards smoking.

It seems that both "fantastic" and "realistic" images of smoking are highly influential to young people. With this in mind publications who often use smoking images (such as the Face, Loaded and Sunday Times) may want to review their articles and evaluate whether a cigarette is an appropriate and indispensable prop to promote a feeling of "glamour"or "down to earth" reality.

The report also throws up another difficult issue for magazine editors. It may not be enough to promote good health (encouraging their readers to quit smoking etc) through editorial and advertising. Careful thought is required to ensure that smoking is not inadvertently being promoted in accompanying images. The fact that readers expect consistency and feel let down if they feel their magazine is "hypocritical" is surely enough reason for magazine editors to take this issue seriously.

As long as fashion editors, photographers and stylists continue to use cigarettes as fashion accessories to portray "real life" or "glamour" in their photographs, young people will continue to see smoking as either normal or "cool" - rather than a habit which will cause death and disability.

We encourage magazine editors to thoroughly read this report and see for themselves the extent of the power they wield over young people’s belief and behavioural systems on the issue of smoking. Against the backdrop of the rising numbers of young people smoking, we hope that editors will look carefully at the whole issue of responsibility towards their readers.

Dr Lesley Owen

Health Education Authority July 1997

REFERENCES

This report is based on 3 studies. The full versions of each are available from the Health Education Authority (HEA).